The International Criminal Court overturned the war crimes conviction of former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba.
Bemba was was one of only four people convicted by the permanent war crimes court in its 16 years of operation, and the highest ranking among them.
The decision came as a huge blow to prosecutors that could also dramatically shake up politics in his home country.
Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende said that Bemba had the right to return home if released, Reuters reported.
Judge Christine Van den Wijngaert said Bemba, once the leader of Congo’s main opposition party, could not be held responsible for crimes carried out by troops under his control in Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002-2003.
She said trial judges had failed to consider his efforts to stop crimes committed by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) once he became aware of them, and how difficult it would have been for him to control the troops’ actions from a distance.
Bemba was arrested in 2008 by Belgian authorities and was charged with rape, killing, and looting against the civilian population in the CAR.
He was acquitted after the Court of Appeal found, with objections from two judges, that the previous sentence had wrongly convicted him of criminal acts not related to the charges held against him.
ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda called the appeal decision “regrettable and troubling”.
She noted that judges did not deny Bemba’s troops had committed atrocities “which resulted in great suffering in the Central African Republic.”
